Relatives of victims poured out their grief and anger on Tuesday before convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala was sentenced to death in a packed courtroom in Santa Ana, California, for the the 1970s strangling of four women and a 12-year-old girl.
Some distraught family members and friends addressed Alcala directly, telling him their lives had been torn apart by his crimes.
Other relatives begged Alcala to admit to the murders to give family members a measure of peace.
“There’s murder and rape, and then there’s the unequivocal carnage of a Rodney Alcala-style murder and rape,” said Bruce Barcomb, brother of victim Jill Barcomb. “Give up your dead, Rodney: all victims, all states, all occurrences. Own your truth.”
Alcala, 66, showed no emotion and kept his head down as families took turns condemning the amateur photographer and UCLA film school graduate.
His death sentences will be automatically appealed.
Alcala was convicted last month of five counts of first-degree murder after a bizarre and sometimes surreal trial.
He acted as his own attorney and unveiled a rambling defense that included questioning the mother of one of his victims, playing an Arlo Guthrie ballad and showing a clip from the 1970s TV show The Dating Game.
After the verdict, authorities released more than 100 photos of young women and girls found in Alcala’s storage locker in hopes of linking him to other unsolved murders around the country.
Authorities are pursuing more than a half-dozen cases in New Hampshire, Washington, California, Arizona and New York, although those investigations are just beginning, prosecutor Matt Murphy said.
None of the photos have been confirmed as missing or murdered women, but some are “looking interesting,” Murphy said.
Alcala has been sentenced to death twice before in the 1979 murder of young Robin Samsoe, but those verdicts were overturned on appeal.
Prosecutors refiled charges in that case and added the four other murder counts against Alcala in 2006 on the strength of DNA samples and other forensic evidence.
Those cases, which had gone unsolved for decades, went on trial for the first time this year.
In other developments, condemned prisoner Franklin Dewayne Alix was executed on Tuesday evening for fatally shooting a Houston man during a robbery.
Alix, 34, received lethal injection for the slaying of 23-year-old Eric Bridgeford, who interrupted Alix as he robbed the apartment of Bridgeford’s sister. The sister had also been abducted and raped in what authorities said was part of a six-month series of crimes by Alix more than 11 years ago.
“I’ve been wanting to apologize to y’all for your son,’’ he told the Thomas family in the seconds before his death. “They told me not to do it in court.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of